[ 155 ]
They relocated from one dimly-lit environment to another, wherein the only sources of light came from the dashboard of the expensive car and the garish nightlife courtesy of the heart of the city.
Emilio wasn't much of a talker on a good day, but Fahren found that the man's absolute silence as he drove, was somewhat unsettling. He wondered if the temporary carer of his expected him to make an apology for being caught drinking. But from the fleeting chance in which Fahren got to see the man's face due to the limitations of light, he could recognise any man who was having an internal battle with himself.
His brows were slightly drawn together as frustration ran rampant in his mind, his two hands which adopted a lazy style of driving as they held the bottom of the steering wheel, gripped unusually firmly as if imagining it to be someone's throat.
His uninterrupted silence continued until they travelled out of the bustling heart, which had always been notorious for its designer brands and the excessive prices that went with them. Along with the never ending stream of trendy bars and restaurants for the wealthy to waste their money inside. Somewhere Fahren had once believed so adamantly was the ideal location for him.
One stop over from the boujee section of the city came the widely-proclaimed 'business nook'. A small space filled to the brim with vastly successful and wealthy corporations, and also where WATSS had their main hub.
Apartments in this particular section of the city were strictly restricted to those who had business being there. Which is why it was the location Fahren had expected his parents to bring him to, as their second home was located in one of the looming towers currently surrounding Emilio's car.
He was equally as surprised when Emilio showed no signs of stopping, driving straight through and out into the outskirts of the western part of the city. Which was given the nickname of 'ghost city' as partway through the construction of the 'reinvention of city-living' the sole company who had been funding the whole project had their skeletons ripped out of the closet and coincidentally went bust a short time later.
It resulted in many unfinished buildings which had been left for umpteen seasons. The only appropriate thing to do would be to rip them down and start again, but the crater-sized amount of responsibility was something no company wanted to take on, especially when it had been referred to on many occasions as a 'giant money-pit'.
The only people whom tended to live in that particular section of the hugely divided city-state were those who worked centrally and yet couldn't afford the astronomical prices that went with the popular economical hotspots in which they worked. So the odd unfamiliar building popped up here and there, which Fahren could see as he peered out the window, that certainly wouldn't have fit with the original architects design for the area.
Other than the odd streetlight that was only on because of its shared system with the thriving surrounding sectors, it was those unattractive buildings that lit up like a Christmas tree. They were acutely visible against the backdrop of abandoned building work.
"It's crazy that flats like those are only a stone's throw from the heart of the business world." Fahren glanced at the rear-view mirror to see the plethora of lights belonging to the luxurious zones they had left behind.
Emilio scoffed, "And there's more in the pipeline. If I'm right, then they will be exact replicas of those flats there."
A few images came to mind, ones Fahren grew quiet as he thought back on. Primarily, it was the first world and how vastly different he and the other discarded children lived in comparison to those who were deemed favourable. Then there was the obscure world in which he was a minority although he was male like the rest of the second world. But the fact was that he was an Omega, an Omega who was never going to receive the same rights as any Alpha unless he demanded it for himself, and that was something he never stopped doing throughout his lifetime.
He had lived on both sides, and was lucky enough to have parents who knew when to invest and when to start a business when there was a marginal gap in the market. But what mostly didn't make sense, was why Emilio had brought him here.
Radical Innovations had their base of operations near to where WATSS had theirs, so there was clearly no fault in company profits, and with the hiring of minimal staff there shouldn't be any discrepancies when it comes to the paying of wages. So why did Emilio potentially live in the ghost town?
Veering off to the left, and into an area Fahren had never been before, he noted that they gradually began to climb. Perhaps it was the elevated aspect that had first interested the developers, as from what Fahren could see out of the window, they were immediately presented with a view over the surrounding city.
Before long, Emilio brought the car to a stop outside of some large gates that he would have completely overlooked at such a time of night. A windy road on the other side of the assigned security further masked the view of where Fahren was being brought to.
Emilio opened a window and outstretched his hand, and Fahren was slightly taken aback by the futuristic nature of the screen that awaited the man's imprint. After a quick scan, it flashed green and the gates opened up, technology that certainly wouldn't have thought to be in the abandoned city.
Once through, they metal doors shut behind them and the mysterious man whom Fahren shared the car with familiarly cruised the car up a perfectly formed curve of a road and came to a stop. He didn't hang around, turning the engine off and rubbing the back of his neck as he climbed out of the car. A man relieved to be home.
Fahren curiously followed, but from where he stood there was nothing to see other than an abrupt end to the road that led no further.
"Is this where you plan on hiding my body?" Fahren wondered and turned to face Emilio who was in the process of grabbing a few bags from the boot of his car.
Emilio spared him a look, albeit a slightly condescending one. "If I was going to dispose of your body, Fahren, I'd be more likely take you to a taxidermist than bury your body in the middle of nowhere."
"I'm flattered, really. But I think that sort of decoration on your wall while eating dinner would elicit a few questions from guests."
With a shake of his head, Emilio turned away and then on the other side of the path and out of immediate eye-level, began to descend a flight of stairs that curved down and around into the ground.
Fahren was quick to follow, intrigued to see the mystery location.
As soon as both men were stepping down, sensors picked up on them and spotlights appeared all the way down and to a levelled surface which was completely unseeable from where they previously standing. And as soon as Emilio had reached the bottom of the stairs, the rest of the splendour of the building came into view.
Warm lights behind curved glass on two levels outlined the architecturally-magnificent home. It blended so seamlessly with the uneven terrain it was built on, making it so that people like Fahren who had never seen it before, were completely unaware it even existed.
It also meant that the location of where Emilio had parked the car, was on his very own rooftop.
Obviously there was little need for curtains, so the whole wall of glass snaked around in a pinched horseshoe shape. With a main focal point being a living wall that was lush with greenery that led from the centre of the living space to the very rooftop. It tempted Fahren to go running up it like a child, but a few deliberately placed man-sized stones were there to likely prevent antics such as that.
Scrapping his earlier thoughts, Fahren happily followed the man who wished to have him stuffed— and not in a desirable way— into his home that clearly outlined the lack of struggle when it came to money.
"Well this definitely beats city living." Fahren acknowledged as he couldn't stop himself from looking around. It was minimally furnished, and yet homely. The choice of lighting made it feel warm and unusually private for a house that had over fifty percent of it covered in glass.
"I thought so too." Emilio said as he abandoned his bags on a table leading down a hallway. He returned and ventured over to the kitchen area, his eyes visibly exhausted and something that Fahren hadn't cottoned onto while they were driving.
From one of the shelves above him, Emilio plucked out two glasses and set them down on the island's surface. From there he reached around and revealed a bottle. It surprised Fahren to see it was anything other than water.
"So I'm not in trouble for drinking?" Fahren pretended to be visibly relieved as he leant forward against the table where the drinks were being poured.
"From what I could see, you were doing so responsibly. My bringing you here is actually because I have ulterior motives." Emilio stated so casually as the liquid entered the glasses with a glug. It proved to send Fahren's mind straight to the gutter, but knowing the man for such a short amount of time he understood that Emilio was someone completely obsessed with his work.
So it was very unlikely to be what Fahren had in mind.
When the drinks were prepared, Emilio sauntered around the island and offered one over. But instead of getting comfortable on the sofas close-by, blondie led him down a hallway and into a completely different wing of the house.
A large area Fahren immediately identified as the man's workspace. Everything was meticulously organised, to the point of being clinical. But it was also the only area containing the identical material that formed the structure of Radical Innovations' headquarters. The adaptable meshing that adjusted just as rapidly as Fahren recalled it doing previously.
What once looked like a simple opaque fabric screen, slid apart to reveal an office. Fahren's attention immediately snapped to the glass-encased terrarium which looked identical to the expansively sized one in the building where he recovered. But this one was smaller and appeared to contain plant-life even Fahren himself hadn't seen before.
Which is why they were protected behind glass, and under strictly controlled lighting and temperature control.
Emilio approached him from behind, "They're the last of their kind. You need special permits to keep them and if you intend to grow more."
From what Fahren could see, coming off the adult plants were tiny saplings. They were a whole variety of deep colours and without a speck of impurity. "Well, you're doing a good job with them."
Instead of continuing on the topic of plants, Emilio gestured him over and Fahren followed to a table standing to one side of the room. It was there that Fahren caught sight of a variety of needles and other medical equipment he couldn't put a name to.
"Since you chose to cut down on your appointments, I haven't been able to monitor your blood-work as frequently as I would like to." The doctor who suddenly sounded a little like a mad scientist, lightly chastised Fahren.
"I'm getting better by the minute, I didn't think I needed to go almost every day."
Emilio turned and leant his backside against the edge of the table, snapping on some latex gloves. "How do I say this in the nicest possible way? Although your health is obviously our main prerogative, it's now become more than you. Your drastic recovery has given us so much to work with, and even if you may be an enigma when it comes to our treatment, your blood-work will be the building blocks for how we unroll our future treatment to other patients who may or may not physically respond in the same way."
The excitement was palpable, but it completely bounced off Fahren, who was more concerned about something else. "Emilio, I take it you don't have many friends."
Unsurprisingly, the extremely intelligent and yet emotionally stunted man didn't hesitate to respond. "What I need is competency, since it's that that has got me to where I am today."
From how he acted when they first met, Fahren deduced that the man was capable of understanding the importance of being reliable and approachable for appearances sake, but clearly that only extended so far. And perhaps when he hadn't had something to drink.
"I'm going to assume that's a no. Because I'm not sure how many would feel about being called an enigma."
"I don't mean your personality, I mean your recovery-rate that some would call miraculous."
Fahren suppressed a laugh. "I know what you meant. Fortunately for you, I have met my fair share of unusual individuals and so I know to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm just imagining that someone as smart as you, is more than likely misinterpreted on a regular basis."
Emilio expressed a rare look of frustration, one which Fahren had guessed at when they first got in the car together. Something had driven someone as self-disciplined as Emilio to a bar in the centre of the city that housed young people who more often than not threw caution to the wind.
Not intending to make the man any grumpier than he already was, Fahren took off his coat and tidily put it to one side.
"At least you know the rule about buying a girl a drink before sticking needles into her." Fahren joked, which only proved to get a huff out of the man opposite.
Although he had consumed alcohol, extracting bloods seemed to be second-nature for Emilio, as he got straight to work. But, even though he was somewhat awkward to deal with, his swift actions were appropriately mindful and subsequently minimised any feeling of discomfort.
Fahren knew better than to speak while he acted like a voodoo doll getting repeatedly prodded. Only when his late doctor had returned to his desk and speedily started inputting data into the computer, did Fahren get a hunch that he was finished. But he couldn't bring himself to ask, as Emilio appeared more than happy to be entirely absorbed in his work.
Holding his forearm which now had a plaster on it, Fahren decided to explore the office. Which didn't amount to much, as there was very little in terms of personal items. Only a good old-fashioned bookcase filled to the brim with thick books that were a little worse for wear.
Trailing his finger along, Fahren had to reread some of the ridiculously long titles and try to get his brain to find a single word he recognised. There were far too many molecular involved terms for him to be remotely interested. But just as he was losing faith, Fahren came across a picture frame.
A man looking to be in his middle-ages and a young boy stood side by side. Smiles were on both of their faces as they faced the camera wearing smart clothes. An affectionate grasp of the child's shoulder showed the relationship between them, and it was enough to make Fahren smile.
The little boy was undeniably Emilio. But the untroubled expression on his young face was one completely untouched by real-world problems.
At the bottom, scrawled in cursive writing was a set of two initials. J. A. Griffin & H. E. Griffin.
For a moment, Fahren had to think. But then it clicked and he couldn't help glancing over his shoulder to look at the man whose name was all over the media. Which is when he found that Emilio had stopped typing and now sat in his chair looking at him. Obviously waiting for the discovery and then the following barrage of questions.
Questions which surprisingly didn't come easily to Fahren upon discovering his doctor's real identity. Instead all he could do was connect the dots: why his parents looked confused when he had said he hadn't met Griffin, why a personality like Emilio's was somewhat controversial in the eyes of those who didn't know him.
And most importantly, why someone would choose to live so secludedly.
"I think I understand now why you were at a bar tonight."
Emilio sighed and stood up, running a hand through his lovely and slightly dishevelled-looking light blond hair. In doing so, his tight button-up shirt revealed the flex of the biceps underneath. Fahren swallowed.
"The media have spun a web of mistruths." He said and became reacquainted with the drink he had momentarily abandoned on the edge of his desk. "Not about my intentions when it comes to Radical Innovations, but their blatant attempts to make the entire populace believe I'm some technology obsessive who intends to come in and completely take over. That's how business works, I'm afraid, and why some companies who have the best of intentions at heart will go bankrupt if the media isn't on their side. They will fuel the mistrust."
Fahren knew about the power of media more than anyone.
"Can you imagine how your own family's business would have been initially perceived? Technology that can see every step you take. That scared the public, but your father's a smart man and knows that those who have more to lose are increasingly desperate for the best of security. And from there WATSS began to thrive. Unfortunately with my company, it's not a security system you can buy one off." He pinched the bridge of his nose as he got progressively more wound up.
Fahren didn't want to think about the necessary procedures that would have to be in place to implement medical equipment. Especially when it was technology invented by a company which was not on the list of trusted ones.
"What does the H stand for in your name?" Fahren abruptly asked as he took a seat in front of the CEO's desk.
Emilio, while still pinching his nose, opened one eye and peered at him. With a deep breath he tilted his head back, exposing his throat and cruelly giving Fahren a tantalising view of the skin of his chest which appeared because of a button which had unfastened.
As expected, he was hairless under the slim-fitting shirt he wore. Fahren couldn't stop wondering if the man's fancy of all things clean also extended to his grooming regime.
"Henri. But only a handful of people call me that and coincidently they all happen to be people I wouldn't be caught dead sharing a room with. Most call me Griffin, but you can call me Emilio."
"Ah, you really know how to make an experiment feel special."
Emilio appeared ready to rebuke him, but Fahren stopped him with a grin. "Just kidding. So tell me, Mr. Controversial Genius, how am I sat here today and with very little scars considering the amount of surgeries I've had."
The question got the immediate response Fahren was hoping for. Emilio moved so he leant against the desk right in front of him. "The science behind it will result in me speaking until the sun is high in the sky and you are drooling in your sleep."
Fahren was offended. "I don't drool."
"That's where you're wrong, dear experiment. But anyway, as I have explained to you before, the main focus of my engineering was always nanotechnology and how to implement it into the medical field. I have never intended for it to replace doctors and nurses, as the media like to claim, but to act as back-up. Which is why, among other reasons, I chose palliative care. As results have proven when it came to your care, the smart material which is lined with nanotech adapted each and every time you showed signs of struggle. It was then through it's analysis that we were able to deduce what surgeries you needed and what dosages—"
Fahren cleared his throat. "Uh, Emilio? I've only had two drinks and I think I'm too drunk for the technicalities. Please dumb it down."
"But that was.. well, ok. Think of the smart material as synapses in the brain, no matter the location of where we install it, it all feeds back to our headquarters where there's an equivalent of a super-computer. All of which contains medical knowledge. Through observing you, it did the maths but also weighed up the variables such as it being too taxing for you mentally. Which is how it knew that when you were awake, you still needed an adjustment period."
"It scanned you to the very last cell, and through obtaining a count of your red blood cells, white blood cells and antibodies created by B-lymphocytes, we could actually create a serum especially tailored to you. And as scars are naturally created during the process of tissue damage, which causes the protein called collagen to be released and then build up where the damage has occurred, we were able to minimise the appearance of said collagen and almost trick your body into thinking that your wounds were much lighter than they actually were. So while this took longer, the final result is you not looking disfigured after having numerous corrective surgeries in hospital that almost always resulted in you needing more surgery."
Fahren regretted even asking. Too many words went in one ear and out the other. But he somewhat got the gist of it.
"Although I pretty much have no clue what you're saying, I do understand how incredible of a result this is. I think I can wholeheartedly say that this world needs your marvellous brain, Emilio. And that you shouldn't let politics keep you from achieving your goal."
Fahren was left stunned when Emilio responded by smiling.
"There's no chance of that happening. Besides, it would simply be hypocritical of me if I engineered technology to expect all the different variables and I didn't then implement them myself."
Perhaps it was his smile, or the way he explained that his moment of vulnerability was merely fleeting and that he had many routes he could take, but Fahren felt a shiver of arousal. He always did find himself attracted to a man with a plan.
[ TBC ]
[ A/N: If you're interested in getting ahead on chapters, then why not check out my Patreon account? Www.patreon.com/BethWorthington ] <3